Johnny Cash: The essay

I am in the throes of writing an essay on Johnny Cash and the 'Hurt' video, which is here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmVAWKfJ4Go 

Johnny Cash is a remarkable man, both personally and musically, and doing the research for this essay has been mostly very satisfying, apart from when many people quote the one source, interpreting it differently.

I am really surprised at the lack of written material, scholarly or otherwise, about the man, and right at this point in time, I could see myself doing a thesis on some of the stories that have accumulated around Johnny Cash that I don't think have been well-covered. These include:

•   Popular music and social taboos. By this I mean the fact that Johnny Cash is one of the few popular artists to have sung about topics such as murder, wrongful imprisonment, death and sinning. Other artists have covered taboo topics, but none has covered the breadth of topics that Cash has.
•  Image and perception versus reality. Johnny Cash has been described as " ...a face that might have been ripped off a wanted poster, a voice that sounds like it's coming through a bandana mask, songs that may as well be fired from six-guns, and a Bible under his writing arm..." (Urbanski 82). In fact, the reality was that aside from drug addictions, short jail spells and marital issues, issues which nearly all music stars face as part of their career, he was essentially a good man. The image of him is quite another thing.
• Genre and exclusion. Johnny Cash started out as a rockabilly singer, along with the likes of Buddy Holly and Elvis, but soon found his own career as a country music superstar. During the later part of his career, Nashville essentially ignored him, in its quest for the young listener, and did not play Johnny Cash on their stations. In my opinion, this was shameful, and Rick Rubin, Cashs producer during the American albums, put this ad in the major music magazines saying as much: 

The other topic I would like to explore is just how much of an impact his persona and music had on the music industry. I feel Johnny Cash has had much more of an impact on the music scene than the books and journals I have read would suggest, and I think more research is necessary (if not exactly easily achievable....)

Anyhows, it's been very interesting and satisfying so far. I'm looking forward to finishing it, and getting some feedback on my ramblings.